20 February 2013

No pressure on Azkals coach Weiss after signing 6 months contract

Karl Decena, InterAKTV

Philippine national men’s football coach Hans Michael Weiss said he feels no pressure after signing a mere six-month contract extension with the Azkals last Monday.

The new deal will only see Weiss with the Azkals at least for the 2014 Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup qualifiers in March, a tournament that will determine the German coach’s long-term stint with the squad.

“Regardless of six months or six years, I prepare for always the same,” he told InterAKTV’s Ryan Fenix in an interview Tuesday. “That’s okay, I’m happy to be here.

“But I can go tomorrow. I will be happy with that.”

Weiss’s vision is to bring the Azkals to the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia. The squad needs to advance to the Challenge Cup qualifiers and win the tournament proper in Maldives next year to earn a slot in the quadrennial football competition, which will feature Asia’s powerhouse football nations such as Japan, Australia and North and South Korea, among others.

“I’m preparing us for real longer and I’m preparing for the the Asian Cup,” he said. “If I would be here in 2015 or not, I don’t know. In football sometimes, you never know what happen.

“(What’s) important is not the duration of the contract, (but) our vision which is to prepare and win this tournament.”

Weiss also understood why the PFF offered him a mere six-month extension.

“If it goes bad in March, then the next tournament will be in Suzuki Cup in November 2014. That’s a year and eight months,” he said. “Many things are based also on financial aspect.”

Under Weiss, the Azkals finished third in the 2012 Challenge Cup and won the Philippine Football Peace Cup last year, the country’s first title in almost a century.

The squad also reached its highest FIFA world ranking at 143rd.

The Azkals will face Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia and Turkmenistan in the 2014 Challenge Cup qualifiers at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in March.